


When You Put Your Arms Around Me

by Byrcca



Series: I Get A Fever That’s So Hard To Bear [3]
Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Episode: s03e16 Blood Fever, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-22
Updated: 2018-03-22
Packaged: 2019-04-06 13:55:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14058438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Byrcca/pseuds/Byrcca
Summary: They were warm and sleepy, and she was thinking. She tried to shut off her brain, but she found that it was precisely moments like this, when she was curled around her husband,  that her brain came alive and tormented her with unfinished business.Part three of a ‘what if they really did it?’ trio. Can stand alone.





	When You Put Your Arms Around Me

**Author's Note:**

> Set a year or so after Endgame. Every P/Ter knows a few basic words of Klingon by now, right? Pure self-indulgent drivel.

~~

Miral was tucked into her crib in her own room, finally sleeping through the night. Her parents were in bed, limbs entwined, and bodies relaxed. Tom’s fingers were tracing a complicated pattern on B’Elanna’s hip. Her arm was draped over his belly, and her head was pillowed on his chest. They were warm and sleepy, and she was thinking. She tried to shut off her brain, but she found that it was precisely moments like this, when she was curled around her husband, sweat drying on their naked bodies, that her brain came alive and tormented her with unfinished business. 

“Tom?” She said his name quietly, unwilling to break the mood but unable to stay silent. 

“Umm?” He didn’t open his eyes.

“What do you remember about the... _incident_?”

He shifted a little and cuddled her closer. “Hmm?” 

She bumped against him. “You know. Sakari.”

He started, and craned his neck down to look at her. He was awake now. “You want to talk about that?” She nodded. “I thought that was on the list of _Things Which Will Never Be Discussed.”_

She smiled at the long-winded title, Tom’s attempt to add levity to moments in their lives that were uncomfortable.

“Why do you want to talk about that now?”

“It’s just been on my mind, that’s all.”

Tom shifted, moving his free arm behind his head, bunching his pillow so he lay a bit more upright. B’Elanna started to pull away, but he hugged her close and she settled against him again. 

“Well,” he began, “you were pretty excited when the sensors detected the gallicite.”

“I remember that part, Tom. Before we beamed down, and Vorik in engineering.”

“What did he do to you? I heard rumours, but—”

“He proposed marriage.”

“What?!” Tom jerked, and B’Elanna ran a soothing hand across his chest. 

“Oh, he was very logical about it. He said that his mental training would help me with my more aggressive tendencies.” 

Tom snorted. “I kind of like your aggressive tendencies.” He winked at her.

She ignored him. “And that his Vulcan strength would be a match for my Klingon, well, _ardour,_ I suppose.”

Tom stared at her, his face a portrait of shock. “He didn’t!”

“Oh, he did.”

“What did you say?” Tom was trying not to laugh. 

“What do think I said? I turned him down! And he reminded me that my choices for a mate were limited to seventy-odd male crew members, some of whom were already taken.”

“Nice,” Tom muttered. 

“He...he grabbed my face.”

“What?!” She felt his body tense again. “Where is he? I’ll kill him.”

“Shhh. Tom, it was more than five years ago. And he wasn’t thinking clearly. Apparently he initiated a mind meld.”

“Urrm,” Tom growled. “So, that’s how he infected you with the _pon farr._ I thought he’d…”

“You thought he’d what?”

“Well, forced himself on you.”

“He did.” She looked into her husband’s eyes and it was in that moment that she truly understood how much of an invasion Vorik’s mindmeld was. Even more so than a physical assault. 

“Of course. But I meant I thought he’d, well, kissed you. You know, that it was transmitted through saliva.” He shrugged. “So when did you hit him?” he asked and she grinned.

“Right around then. I’m not sure. It’s a little jumbled.”

“I hope it hurt.” Tom muttered ungraciously.

“Oh, I think so. I broke his jaw. He literally hit the deck.” Tom laughed at that. “It’s not funny!” She shoved him. 

“Yeah, it is. The first time I saw you in those boots I wanted to fall at your feet!” he laughed again. “So that’s why he wasn’t on the team?”

“Yeah. There was no way I was bringing him after that.”

“Well,” he cupped her shoulder, then trailed his fingers down her arm, “if I’d known I’d’ve probably beat the stuffing out of him.”

She peered up at him, “The way I heard it, you did.” 

He brought his palm to her cheek. “It was a team effort. When he hit you, it scared the hell out of me. I wanted to kill him then. I was afraid he’d seriously hurt you. It’s lucky for him he didn’t.”

She stared at her husband noting the anger in his eyes, the firm set of his jaw. “He did. I thought he’d ruined everything. I thought you’d never speak to me again.”

He looked incredulous. “Me? B’Elanna, you wouldn’t look me in the eye. You avoided me for weeks. I thought…” He sighed and ran his fingers through her hair. “We’d been getting closer, and I thought you’d never get over it; that you’d blame me forever.”

“Blame you?” She shook her head. “None of this was your fault.” He snorted. “Tom, I forced you to… I know you didn’t want to.”

“Didn’t want to?!” He laughed again. “B’Elanna, I’d been thinking about you for months. Believe me, I wanted to. I was crazy about you.”

“You were?”

“Yeah. Remember the invitations to dinner, asking you to spend time with me on the holodeck? The getting jealous stuff?”

“You were never jealous,” she scoffed.

“Oh, wasn’t I? You wouldn’t have dinner with me but a private table for two with Vorik was just fine.” 

“He kind of tricked me into that.” And now I know why, she thought. “If you were so interested in me, why did you fight me? In the caves.”

“You really don’t get it, do you? I’d been trying to get you to go on a date with me for the better part of a year. I thought you only wanted to be friends. And I figured, if I gave in, if we...had sex, that friendship would be over. And if that was all you were offering me, I wanted to keep it. I wasn’t willing to do anything to ruin it.”

She shook her head. “Tom, that isn’t true. I’d wanted you, too, for so long. I was just afraid to admit it.”

That shook him, the echo of the words she’d said in the cave. He’d thought she’d only said them to seduce him, to break him, but if she’d actually meant what she’d said then… He shook his head. “I was an idiot.”

“Probably,” she grinned. “Why?”

In response he just hugged her tighter, and propped his chin on her head. “What do you remember about being in the tunnels?”

“Neelix falling. And I was so angry. I knew I’d have to call off the mission. I could have killed him. And I remember wondering why I was so angry. I mean, he was my friend and he was hurt, but all I could think about was the gallicite.”

“You were a little pissed at me, too.”

She traced his jaw. “I’m sorry I bit you.”

“Wasn’t the last time.” He waggled his eyebrows, and she gave him a little punch.

“I didn’t plan to, it just happened.”

_**Just let it happen.**_

Tom’s thoughts lingered on the memory for a moment: B’Elanna, leaping at him, pinning him to the ground, kissing him for the first time. Her skin streaked with dirt, her hair mussed, advancing on him, backing him against the cave wall.

_**You can’t tell me you’re not interested in me.**_

And for a moment he gave in, melted into her. Let himself love her with all his heart. Let himself believe she loved him. 

_**You just stay away from me!**_

“You stormed off down the tunnel.” She nodded. “I wanted to go after you but Neelix was hurt, so I called _Voyager._. I wasn’t thinking; I told the Captain that you’d bitten me.” He shook his head. “I’m sorry. I guess someone on the bridge told someone else, and it got all around the ship.”

“The warp core doesn’t propel _Voyager_ , the gossip mill does.”

“Do you remember when we found you?” Another nod. “And the Sikarians showed up.”

“I think so.”

“You fought one of them and got his weapon. Then there was a rockfall and we were separated from the others. We were fighting over the gun and you threatened to break my arm.”

_**This isn’t about the gun, this is about sex.**_

She shook her head. “No, I don’t remember that.”

_**I’ve picked up your scent, Tom, I’ve tasted your blood.**_

“The tunnel wall collapsed so we had to find another way out.”

She sighed in frustration. “So we were running around like rats in a maze. That doesn’t matter. Tell me about...you know.”

Tom’s eyebrow arched upward. “Doesn’t matter? B’Elanna, when you kissed me in those tunnels, when you made it more than clear that the only thing stopping us from rutting like animals was my more chivalrous instincts, I almost gave in. You were making me crazy. Here was the most beautiful, fascinating woman I’d ever met, who I’d fantasized about for months, literally throwing herself at me, and I had to say no. I had to fight you off when all I wanted to do was tear off your clothes and say a very emphatic yes!”

Her mouth had fallen open in a little O of surprise. “Huh,” she said. 

“Yeah,” Tom confirmed. “You have no idea how hard it was to say no to you. Denying you only made me want you even more. And when we finally did get to the surface, to have Tuvok order me to have sex with you, that was just ridiculous. I should have saved myself all that trouble and just given in the first time.”

“I’m sorry.” She stroked his face and pulled him into a kiss. 

“No, I’m sorry.” He sighed. “It almost killed me, watching you get weaker, sicker. Then Tuvok says you could die if we didn’t… Do you remember anything about that at all?”

“A little. Just impressions, feelings. You were warm. I remember your skin on mine, your scent all around me. I felt real... joy, I guess, and you were inside me.”

He smirked at that and she thumped him on the chest. “That’s not what I meant; it was like you’d become a part of me. You were within me, my mate. You completed me, and I finally felt whole.”

He stared at her for a time, saying nothing, and B’Elanna felt a wave of irritation mixed with embarrassment. “That was stupid, forget it.”

“No,” Tom said, “no, it’s not stupid. I felt it too. Belonging, like I’d come home at last.”

“We wasted so much time,” B’Elanna murmured. 

“I think we needed it, though.”

She shrugged. 

“After, when we got back to the ship, I studied Klingon ritual. What?” he said when she sent him the skunk-eye. “I realized that I didn’t really know anything about Klingon history or...other stuff. Just what I learned at school about the peace treaty and the bullshit that I heard in Academy Prep.

“And I started working out. I wanted to be in shape, just in case you changed your mind and decided to talk to me again.”

She snorted. “I can’t imagine Harry practicing _Mok’bara.”_

“Actually, Baxter taught me. He wiped the floor with me.”

B’Elanna laughed, then sobered. “I don’t remember Vorik showing up.”

_**She is my mate, not yours!**_

He shook his head. “I’ll never forget it. I wanted to kill him.”

_**You want a fight? You’ve got one!**_

“I read my medical file, afterward. The Doctor didn’t want me to, but I insisted.” 

Her hand crept to her shoulder where he’d bitten her, and he closed his eyes. “I bit you.”

“Yes. I’m sorry I made you do that.”

“Made me?” Tom was confused. She nodded. “B’Elanna, you didn’t force me to do anything I didn’t want to do, I hadn’t longed to do for months. Do you remember biting me again?”

His stubble scraping her lips, his jaw between her teeth, the give of his flesh as she bit down, his skin breaking and the taste of his blood on her tongue. She nodded. 

“It drove me, well, wild I guess. Until that moment, I thought I could be clinical about it, reserved.” She snorted. “Well, yeah. Pretty dumb, huh? Then you bit my jaw again and all I felt was pleasure.” He shifted and rolled her onto her back, and scraped his teeth along her jaw, down her throat to the soft juncture between her neck and shoulder. “Joy. You’re right,” he breathed, “I felt joy.”

He pinned her to the bed, pulling her arms over her head. “You were mine, and I was yours. And I decided I wouldn’t let you deny it later.”

“Oh, tell me all about that,” she grinned. 

“Remember when we met in the ‘lift?”

“Yeah?” Of course she remembered. The awkward silence when he looked up from his padd to see her standing there inside the turbolift, alone. She could read the decision clearly in his eyes: walk in and be alone with her, or leave. She’d thought he was going to walk away. They’d talked about nothing: his conn report, and the refit. It had been stilted and embarrassingly painful. And through it, all she’d really wanted to do was throw him to the floor and take him again. Remind him that he was hers. She’d ached for him.

“And I halted it and tried to get you to talk to me?”

“Yeah,” her eyes were shining.

“What I really wanted to do was press you up against the wall, declare that you were my mate, and kiss you silly.”

Her eyes widened at that. “Your mate? Really?” She was fighting a grin, and she wiggled a little, sliding her breasts against his chest. His grip on her wrists slackened as his eyes darkened. “So, why didn’t you?”

“B’Elanna, I’d violated you. You were ill, and I was supposed to protect you, but I didn’t. I should have been able to find another way.”

“Tom, even Tuvok—”

“I enjoyed it, B’Elanna, all of it. Even the rough stuff.” He brought his thumb to the place where he’d bitten her and rubbed the skin gently. 

“I heard that I enjoyed it too.” She kissed him, then drew back and looked into his eyes. “What made you think we were mates?”

“You’d tasted my blood, I’d tasted yours. We’d had sex. You even clawed up my right hand. It was done.” 

It was like he was going through a maintenance checklist. “You’ve been reading up on this, haven’t you?”

“Uh huh.” 

“Well, shows what you know. We didn’t take the oath, Tom.”

His expression grew serious. “I did, in my head.”

She softened. “At best, my grandmother would have considered us engaged.” And questioned B’Elanna’s state of mind in getting involved with a human. 

“That would have been enough,” he said softly.

“And she wouldn’t have been very happy about it, either.” 

“I would have won her over; I have a way with Klingon women,” he said with a smile. She glanced away. “You know,” Tom continued, “the Doc warned me not to snoop in your file. That was his word, snoop. Said he’d revoke my medical clearance, like _that_ was a threat, and have me thrown in the brig. But I was tempted.”

“Why? Most of my injuries were from the fight. You saw them yourself.”

“I was worried you’d, well, get pregnant. And then, when you kept avoiding me, I hoped you were, because that would have decided it all.”

“Oh would it? What, you thought you could force me to marry you?” She slid a hand out of his grip and poked him in the chest. “That’s some mixed up chivalry, flyboy.”

“I guess,” he agreed, “Besides, look how that worked out for Vorik.”

She snorted. “The Doctor made sure I wouldn’t get pregnant.”

“Oh. I didn’t think of that.”

“You know, you’re lucky I didn’t break your jaw when you made that crack about my Klingon side.” 

She glared at him, and he looked confused for a moment before he remembered. He shifted so he was resting between her legs, so she had absolutely no doubt of his physical reaction to her. “You thought I was talking about the sex, didn’t you?” 

Her gaze slid away from his eyes, slid back. “Weren’t you?”

“No. I meant, your Klingon side. That rough and tumble, aggressive, hard-crust exterior of yours. Of course, I was still thinking about the sex somewhere in the back of my mind. I did for months.” He kissed her chin, the point of her jaw, trailed a path along her throat. “Take the oath with me, _parmaqqay_.”

She laughed. “Tom we’ve been married for almost two years. We have a child.”

“But we’ve never said the oath.” 

He slid off of her, and she sat up a bit, leaning over him. “You’re serious?” He nodded. “Okay.”

“Really?” His eyes lit up. “Do we need a _d'k tahg?_ ”

She stared at him, gauging the sincerity of his question. “No.”

“Oh.” He sounded disappointed. 

She leaned down and kissed him softly, then quickly moved and sank her teeth into the point of his jaw, just below his ear. He hissed. “ _jIH dok,_ ” she said. 

He pulled her down onto the mattress and rolled her slightly so she was on her back. He kissed her throat, her shoulder, then bit her in the same spot he’d bitten her on Sakari IV. _“maj dok.”_ His voice was thick with emotion. 

B’Elanna grinned and took his hand in hers. _“tlhIngan jIH._ ” 

_“tlhIngan jIH,_ ” he repeated. Love for her radiated from him.

And she smiled again, warmth lighting her eyes. “I believe you are, Thomas Eugene Paris. A very honourable Klingon, at that.”

***

**Author's Note:**

> So, when I typed the line - “Oh, he was very logical about it. He said that his mental training would help me with my more aggressive tendencies.” 
> 
> Autocorrect supplied ‘aggressive tenderness’.
> 
> Sooooooooo B’Elanna!


End file.
